A federal judge on Friday sternly warned the government not to RIF any federal employees who are part of union bargaining units while the current shutdown is in place,
‘Don’t do it,” Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco told Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Hedges during a status conference in a lawsuit brought by federal employee unions.
“It is not complicated,” she said. “During this time, these agencies should not be doing” reductions in force of the people covered by her order.
Illston issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday prohibiting agencies from conducting RIFs of employees who are part of bargaining units for the American Federation of Government Employees and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
At the status conference Friday, she agreed to expand the TRO to include members of the National Federation of Federal Employees, National Association of Government Employees and the Service Employees International Union.
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She also agreed to expand the TRO to specifically prohibit the Interior Department from conducting RIFs. The Interior Department submitted a declaration to the court saying it intended to lay off about 1,500 employees, and Danielle Leonard, a lawyer for the unions, said in court Friday that those RIFs could come Monday.
Hedges said the government agencies intend to comply with the TRO, which Illston said she was pleased to hear.
“I'm glad they're trying to do the right thing. We will try to clarify the right thing in the event there's any confusion about it,” she said.
In a declaration filed with the court, the Agriculture Department’s Mary Pletcher Rice, acting principal deputy assistant secretary for administration, said, “USDA has not issued any RIF notices implicated by the court’s TRO. USDA will not proceed with any RIFs prohibited by the TRO for as long as the TRO remains in force, absent an order from a higher court providing relief.”
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